Many of us these days, whom have been guided to accepting Islam as a way of life, haven’t really given certain very important things too much thought. I wanted to take a second today to bring one of these things to light, so as to get us pondering on something that we should have been thinking about from the beginning. This issue is the concept of what we know about Allah. We all say that He is God. We all say that he is our lord. But how many of us know anything about this God that we worship? When we think about the answer to that question we will have to say very few of us really know much about the object of our worship. When we dig a bit deeper, we will find that even from that few, even fewer really know about Allah the way we all should.
It seems as though after many of us become Muslim our search for information about our Lord comes to a slow crawl, or for some it comes to a halt. This is not correct. We must gather information as to who Allah is, so that we can gain a better knowledge of who is to us. When we begin to gain knowledge about these things, it will enable us to truly love Allah the way that we should. It will enable us to begin to see and appreciate Allah’s mercy and many blessings that He pours on us on a regular basis.
After talking about getting to know Allah and the benefits of getting to know Him, we want to discuss how this happens. Now that we see the importance of this topic, I want you to ask yourself – How can I begin to know Allah? What have you come up with? Some of you have probably thought by looking at the signs of His existence. That’s a great answer, as this will aide your belief in Him. There are three things that I wanted to very quickly touch on thought, which will aid us all in gaining more knowledge about Allah.
The first of these is Allah’s Lordship (Rububiyyah)
Allah The Most High, says in Surah al Fatihah,
{الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينِ}
{All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the ‘Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists).}
[Al Fatihah – 2]
Here Allah explains to us that He is our Lord and the Lord of everyone and everything else. This is something none of us will argue against. We must ask ourselves what this entails though. The word Lord to many of us is just a word that we have not really understood what it consists of in terms of its meaning. This concept is one that is way too important for us to just leave it without trying to understand it as many of us have. It is part of our belief in Allah. We all understand that belief in something comes with having knowledge about that which we claim to believe.
So let’s take a quick look at what this term means. When we say that Allah is our Lord, we must single out Allah in terms of His actions. We must single him out in terms of his being the creator of all creation, The Sole Provider for everything that exists, the sole possessor of all dominion, etc. (Sheikh Saalih al Fawzan in his book “Aqeedah at Tawheed”)
Allah tells us that for Him alone has the ability of creating something from absolutely nothing. He says,
{ذَلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَاعْبُدُوهُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ}
{Such is Allah, your Lord! La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshiped but He), the Creator of all things. So worship Him (Alone), and He is the Wakil (Trustee, Disposer of affairs, Guardian, etc.) over all things.}
[Al Anaam – 102]
This means that we understand about Allah that He is the only one that creates anything from absolutely nothing. There is nothing else that has ever done this, nor will there be anything that does. This ability is something that can only come from Allah. This in itself shows Allah’s greatness and superiority over everything else. When you sit an ponder on this issue, and the fact that it this ability belongs to Allah and Him alone, it should allow you to see how superior to all that we know, and even those things we don’t know.
The next thing that we want to think about is the fact that Allah tells us that He alone is the Provider of everything that exists. He tells us in His Book,
{وَمَا مِنْ دَابَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا عَلَى اللَّهِ رِزْقُهَا وَيَعْلَمُ مُسْتَقَرَّهَا وَمُسْتَوْدَعَهَا كُلٌّ فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ}
{And no (moving) living creature is there on earth but its provision is due from Allah. And He knows its dwelling place and its deposit (in the grave, etc.). all is in a Clear Book (Al-Lauh Al-Mahfuz – the Book of Decrees with Allah).}
[Hud – 6]
So we see here that every living thing that we know of, including ourselves, whenever its provisions come to it, they come from Allah. Our Lord is the one that give all of us our provisions. There is nothing that comes to any living thing except that it is from the will command of Allah Ar Razaaq (The Provider). This should make you not only thankful for that which you have, but also leave you in awe that it happens for you and every other living creature. Everything that you have received in the whole of your lifetime as well as those other than you, have been given to them by the one who gives to whom He pleases and holds back from who He pleases. All of those things that you will be given for the remainder of your time in this life will be given to you by the one who possesses everything and by giving you what you need, does not decrease from His possessions one bit. As we mentioned a minute ago, this not only holds true for you, but also for all of His creation.
Does this not show you how amazing your Lord is? Do you not see why to Him is truly all of the praise and the glory? When you sit and think about all of this, it should give you whole other perspective on how you see Allah in a brand new light. It shows you why you should be in constant thanks to Him.
The next thing that we want to point out is the fact that Allah is Owner of everything. Allah tells us in His book that,
{قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتَنْزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ إِنَّكَ عَلَىَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ (26) تُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ وَتَرْزُقُ مَنْ تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ (27)}
{Say (O Muhammad SAW): “O Allah! Possessor of the kingdom, You give the kingdom to whom You will, and You take the kingdom from whom You will, and You endue with honor whom You will, and You humiliate whom You will. In Your Hand is the good. Verily, You are Able to do all things. (26) You make the night to enter into the day, and You make the day to enter into the night (i.e. increase and decrease in the hours of the night and the day during winter and summer), You bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living. And You give wealth and sustenance to whom You will, without limit (measure or account). (27)}
[Aali Imraan – 26-27]
When we think about what this entails, we understand that everything that we have seen as well as those things that we have not seen and only know of, belong to Allah and Him alone. Yes, we as mankind do own and possess things, but not in the fashion that Allah does. Allah has true ownership. Everything is His to do as we please with. We are given things to use and benefit from, but the real issue of ownership belongs to Allah. This is why we will be asked about what we have done with those things Allah has blessed us with, because for us is only the befit of these things. Whereas, the true and sole possessor of all things, is the Lord of the Worlds.
Also in this, we should realize that everything we come across is a gift and blessing from Allah. This should cause us to turn to Allah when we are in need of everything, as we should understand that being as though everything Is His to begin with, it can only truly come from Him.
Now, getting back to the original point, getting to know Allah is important. As we previously stated there are many ways to go about doing this. The one that we have focused on here is getting to know about some of those actions that Allah and only Allah possesses in their true forms. This will enable us to be able to see the true greatness Allah. We should be able to recognize the huge blessings that we have bestowed upon us every day, which many times we take for granted.
All of these things should cause us to be grateful to Allah and increase in our worship. Seeing and understanding these things should cause us to realize that only the one who does these things which nothing else can do, has the right to be worshiped. As you think about all that was discussed in this short reminder, can you say that thinking of these things don’t cause your level of emaan (belief) to raise, as well as your desire to thank Allah for all that He has done for you? On top of that, just think how great His situation is that He does this not only for you but for all of creation from the beginning of time to the end of time with no effort.
